Welcome to another episode of “What’s Working Now!”
Today I want to talk about the value of negotiating experience and expertise, especially when sellers get multiple offers.
Let me give you an example. We recently put a house on the market on a Friday. By Sunday, it had five offers, and we sold the house Sunday evening.
Your agent needs to be able to talk to the buyer agents about how to write a good offer in the first place. Once the house is on the market and has had a couple of showings, the agents start calling me and asking, “When are you presenting offers? How are you doing this or that?”
At that time, I take the opportunity to discuss with those agents how I would like them to write their offer. I say, “The seller would really appreciate a settlement date of X. The seller would really appreciate a short home inspection contingency or none at all. If your offer is going to have a financing contingency, the seller would appreciate seeing a financial information sheet, not just a lender letter.”
I give the agents instructions to bring us what we want: a big number, a short settlement date, and a big, fat deposit from a well-qualified buyer. If possible, we want that from five different buyers if we can get it.
So last weekend, I put the word out to these agents and told them exactly what we wanted. I even said, “I know there will be other offers on this property. Rather than doing an escalation clause, which says ‘If someone makes me pay more, I’ll pay more,’ just come in and say ‘I will pay more. I will give you this and take out that contingency.’ That way, your buyer will have a better chance of winning the home, so please make your offer like that.”
After I talked to these five agents, I got two offers that were really low and had all kinds of contingencies. Those two offers were no good. I got three offers with really big numbers, so I called those three agents and coached them on how to make their offers better while I was sitting with the seller.
Any other real estate agent might have looked at those three offers, picked the best one, and sent it over for you to sign. They would probably say something like, “We got five offers! Look at what someone was willing to pay for your home! Here, sign this one.”
For me and my clients, that’s not good enough. I take it the extra step. Once I get the offers, I take the best ones and have a conversation with the agents about how they can improve the offers if they want a better chance at winning.
In this case, two of the buyers increased their price, while the other took out the financing contingency and the appraisal contingency. I was able to get one buyer and one back-up buyer for my seller.
The first buyer called their home inspector, came into the property, and immediately got cold feet. That buyer wound up walking away from the transaction.
Luckily, we had a backup buyer in place. I didn’t have to change the status of the property and say, “This deal fell apart and the house is now back on the market.” Instead, the home remained under contract, and the second buyer got the chance to slip in and get the house without renegotiating. It was a win-win for that buyer and for my seller.
We just had the inspection today, and everything looks good so far.
When you sell your home, make sure that you work with a listing agent who will price the home correctly and make it look good enough to get all those people in the door. That agent will be able to create the opportunity for multiple offers.
Your agent also needs to be good enough to coach the buyer agents on how to make those offers into something that will get a better outcome for you.
If your home is priced well, looks good, and you have an agent who is an excellent negotiator, you will end up with a win.
To learn more about selling your home, make sure to watch the Home Seller Half Hour this week. Sign up here to learn everything you need to know in less than 30 minutes.
Thank you for watching “What’s Working Now!” Next time, I’ll cover some of the coolest things happening in our red-hot real estate market.
Meanwhile, if you have any other real estate questions, just give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!
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